The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the high bluestone wall in front of the castle, and also shines on the two huge stone lions in front of the gate outside the high wall, dyeing them golden.
This is Gejiabao in the western suburbs of Changsha.
The two stone lions in front of the gate are no longer the same two as a month ago. Of course, the dominating Gejiabao will not let two broken stones be left in front of the door to be embarrassed, so it has already replaced them with new ones, and the ones they replaced are better than the previous ones.
The two ends are taller and more powerful.
To say that Gejiabao is dominant was a boast in the past, but now it is somewhat untrue. Now Gejiabao cannot even be said to dominate the western suburbs of Changsha City, because of the "evil dog gate's split rudder"
It is also in the western suburbs, only dozens of miles away from Gejiabao.
However, Mr. Ge Gangyu believes that it will not take long, maybe in three to five days, Gejiabao will be able to regain his dominance in Changsha Mansion, and the "Evil Dog Gate" and the "Dongting Gang" can all go to hell!
One day ago, Ge Gangyu received a handwritten letter from Yue Hanshan, the leader of the "Hengshan Sect". He knew that the large group of "Hengshan Sect" was about to arrive in Changsha City and would be temporarily stationed in "Gejiabao".
, a turning point for the Ge family has come.
At this time, Ge Gangyu was sitting on the tiger-skin chair in the middle of the main hall. His four sons, Ge Canglong, Ge Chihu, Ge Qingbao and Ge Baixiong, were also in the hall, standing on the left and right of Mr. Ge.
"Dad! Head Yue said in the letter when they would arrive. It's already dark now, why are they still missing?" The person who asked the question was the burly Ge Chihu, with an anxious expression on his face, as if he was from the "Hengshan Sect"
"The masters of "Gejiabao" were invited to come here to help them seek revenge from the "Evil Dog Gate".
However, Ge Gangyu calmly said: "Don't worry, according to the distance, they will arrive in another hour."
"Then I'll go to the pier behind and see if there's any sign of the sailboat!" Ge Baixiong said.
Ge Gang said: "No need. The dock has already been prepared to welcome the ship. We will greet the ship after it arrives. You go and inspect the sentries around the castle to see if there is anything unusual."
Ge Chihu was a little disapproving and said: "Dad is too careful. We have checked those sentry posts three times today. We have checked them three times today. Now the four factions are so beaten up in Changsha City that they have no time to take care of themselves. How can they have the time to come to us?"
trouble!"
Ge Gangyu frowned and rebuked: "Nonsense! I have received information in the morning that the masters of the 'Dongting Gang' and the 'Three Evils' have withdrawn from Changsha City, and they have all gathered in the old house of the Sun family, only a few meters away from us.
There is thirty miles of land, and we are now in front of someone else's sword. How can we not be careful? Go and inspect it quickly, don't be wordy!"
The "Four King Kongs of the Ge family" did not dare to contradict their father, so they claimed that it was true and went out separately.
Watching his sons leave, Ge Gangyu's brows were still furrowed.
It was a great thing for the masters of the "Hengshan Sect" to come, but since the morning, he felt a little uneasy in his heart, but he couldn't explain why.
Ge Gangyu was over fifty years old and had been in the arena for most of his life. He had experienced a lot of various fighting battles. He was very experienced. He immediately sent out the villagers and set up several layers of hidden sentries outside the fort.
, then closed the fort gate tightly, and asked his four sons to patrol the fort wall from time to time.
These arrangements are made to prevent sneak attacks. If the "Three Evils" of the "Dongting Gang" really come to attack and take down the sentry outside the fort, they will be immediately noticed on the fort wall, and they can be summoned at that time.
The villagers in the fort resisted. The fort wall of "Gejiabao" was built extremely high, more than five feet long. It was extremely difficult for a light kung fu master to overcome it. With strong bows and crossbows, it shouldn't be a problem to defend it for several hours.
No matter how desperate it is, you can still buy some time for him and his four sons to escape by boat on the river. "Gejiabao" is built along the river, with a waterway dock behind it. It is difficult for the enemy to encircle and attack, so you can always leave an escape route for easy escape.
Seeing that the burning sandalwood on the incense burner on the table gradually became shorter, and the masters of the "Hengshan Sect" would arrive soon, Ge Gangyu's anxious heart relaxed a little, and he reached out to pick up the tea cup on the table, and carefully
Took two bites.
But at this moment, a villager ran in from outside the door.
"Reporting to our ancestors, a group of officers and soldiers came outside the fort. The leader of the group was a policeman. They said they had to enter the fort on official business!" Zhuang Ding reported.
Ge Gangyu's brows that had just relaxed slightly furrowed again and asked: "Who are the officers and soldiers? How many people are here?"
Zhuang Ding said: "There are about thirty people. It is said that they are from the city government office."
Ge Gangyu pondered for a while and then ordered: "Where is Butler Ge? Ask him to come over and come with me to have a look!"
After a while, Mr. Ge brought his housekeeper Ge Wanjin to the fortress wall, and his four sons were also here.
Looking down from the top of the wall, you can see a group of people standing not far outside the gate. The one at the front is a thin, dark-faced man, wearing a black official uniform with silver borders. He is the arrester from the Yamen.
The people behind him all looked like officials, each carrying a sword and leading dozens of horses. It was obvious that they all came on horseback.
With the strength of "Gejiabao", of course they will not be afraid of these thirty officers and soldiers. As long as the opponent is not a martial arts master, even if the number is doubled, they can easily be dealt with by relying on the power of the fort. Ge Gang said
The only worry is that these officers and soldiers are dressed up by masters from the four alliances.
He asked Ge Wanjin beside him in a low voice: "Do you know that head catcher?"
As the chief steward of "Gejiabao", Ge Wanjin was in charge of the daily chores in the fort. He often went in and out of Changsha City and was very familiar with local personnel, so Ge Gangyu called him to recognize him.
Ge Wanjin looked outside the wall for a long time and said: "I have never seen this guy before. Judging from his clothes, he seems to be working as an errand in the government office."
Ge Gangyu nodded and shouted loudly: "The master catcher outside is respectfully named. Is there anything going on at 'Gejiabao'?"
The black-faced man replied: "My name is Zhou Xiong, and I am the catcher on duty at the Changsha government office! Who are you? Open the door quickly and let us in. I have important business to do!"
According to the official system of the Ming Dynasty, police officers had no rank and were not considered officials at all. This Zhou Xiong probably relied on the power of the prefect's office and was used to running rampant in the city. At this time, he put on a bad air and used vulgar language.
, with a very arrogant attitude.
Ge Chihu, who was on the side, felt angry and couldn't help cursing: "Who the hell is this kid? He dares to come to 'Gejiabao' to act wild. It's really unreasonable!"
However, Ge Gangyu was not angry and said: "I am Ge Gangyu, the master of 'Ge Family Fort'. I don't know what official duties Zhou Captou has. Can you explain a few things first?"
Zhou Xiong said: "So you are Lord Gebao, okay, let me tell you. Recently, it was found that the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong, the rebel bandit from Hubei Province, have been operating in Changsha territory. There is an order from the top to conduct a thorough investigation everywhere in and outside the city.
We are encamping in the village to capture the rebels and bandits. Lord Ge, this arrest is for official duties. Please open the door quickly and let us inspect the fort so that we can go back and report!"
There were frequent civil strife in the Ming Dynasty, and rebels rose up in almost all regions. Legend has it that there were eighteen groups of rebels against the king, and Zhang Xianzhong in Hunan and Hubei was one of them. The government was afraid that villages and towns would be occupied by rebels, so they often sent people to patrol everywhere.
, even for a manor camp far out in the countryside like Gejiabao, people from the government would visit once every one or two months, but most of them just pretended to enter the fort for a casual look and then left.
As the saying goes, the people do not fight against the officials. Although "Gejiabao" is a martial arts sect, after all, it has a family and business in Changsha City. It cannot compare with the underworld forces that gather in the mountains and forests, so it cannot easily offend the officials and cause trouble.
If it were in the past, Ge Gangyu would have opened the fort gate to let Zhou Xiong enter, and even asked someone to entertain him with good wine and food before sending him away. But today, it was the "Hengshan Sect" who was about to arrive.
At this critical moment, Ge Gangyu couldn't help but hesitate.
Could it be that Zhou Xiong was bribed by the Four Factions Alliance to falsely open the fort gate and conduct a raid under the guise of inspection?
Thinking of this, Ge Gang said: "This fort has always been loyal to the imperial court. The rebels dare not come. So don't worry, Capt. Zhou. There are urgent matters in the fort today. I'm sorry if I can't open the door to let the captivity in."
When Zhou Xiong heard that Ge Gang said that he didn't open the door, he couldn't help but became furious. His face changed and he was about to get angry, but he heard Ge Gang say: "Captain Zhou has had a hard journey all the way. We can't open the door to entertain people, so we have to prepare
I will leave you two hundred taels of silver and give it to the head catcher to drink tea as a token of my appreciation."
Two hundred taels of silver is not a small amount. Even if you drink tea for a year, you can't spend it all. When Zhou Xiong heard this, his anger suddenly turned into joy, and he smiled happily and said: "It's easy to talk to, Lord Ge Bao is so polite!"
Ge Gangyu glanced at him, and the chief steward Ge Wanjin quickly took out the banknote from his arms, counted two or two hundred, and handed it to the village man next to him with some pain.
The banknotes were placed in a small basket and hung with a rope from the several-foot-high village wall. Zhou Xiong happily walked to the wall, took out the banknotes and looked at them twice before putting them in his arms.
He smiled "haha" and said: "Master Gebao is really generous, has great martial arts skills, and is loyal to the court. Those rebels will definitely not dare to come to 'Gejiabao', so we don't need to go into the fort to see it!"
Ge Gang said: "Then I would like to thank Zhou Captou for being so accommodating. I will invite Captou to the castle for a drink some other time!"
Zhou Xiong said: "You're welcome, brother, I'll come back another day."
Zhou Xiong said, turned around and took the reins of the horses handed over by his soldiers. More than thirty people got on their horses and rode away.
At this time, I saw another group of people coming from the avenue in the distance.
What came this time was a sedan, carried by four bearers, followed by two riders. The man on the horse was wearing armor and carrying a sword. He was also a member of the government, and he was dressed as a soldier in the yamen.
Zhou Xiong and others saw the sedan from a distance, but they did not dare to go any further. Instead, they jumped off their horses and led their mounts to the side of the road to make way for the sedan.
Ge Gangyu, who was standing on the fort wall, frowned, but he didn't know where he came from.